HAVANA – Delta Air Lines Inc. announced Friday that starting Dec. 1, it will operate three daily flights to the Cuban capital: one each from Miami, New York and Atlanta.

The carrier plans to use larger aircraft on the routes during the summer tourism season, Delta’s director for Central America and the Caribbean, Jose Zapata, told Cuban media.

As part of the normalization process launched in December 2014, the U.S. and Cuba signed an agreement in February to restore regular passenger air service between the two countries after an interruption of 55 years.

Budget carrier JetBlue inaugurated the new phase on Aug. 31, with a flight from Fort Lauderdale to the central Cuban city of Santa Clara.

Since then, JetBlue added service from Fort Lauderdale to Holguin and Camagüey and the company plans to connect Havana with Fort Lauderdale, Orlando and New York.

American Airlines began flights to Holguin, Varadero, Santa Clara Cienfuegos and Camagüey in September. Next month, American will start offering service to Havana from Boston, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Tampa and Washington.

While the economic embargo imposed in 1962 prevents U.S. citizens from traveling to Cuba purely for tourism, President Barack Obama’s liberalization measures include the creation of 12 categories of authorized visits to the Communist-ruled island.

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